Grant: CIHR Fellowship

As women reach the end of their reproductive years they transition into menopause. The natural hormone changes that occur during menopause are associated with weight gain, changes in the distribution of body fat, and loss of lean muscle mass. Over one third (34.7%) of postmenopausal women are currently obese. Hormone therapy is often prescribed to women to manage the physical symptoms (e.g., hot flashes, migraine) that occur during and after menopause. However, our understanding of the effects of excess body weight (obesity) and hormone therapy in postmenopausal women remains incomplete. The primary aim of this project is to study the relationship between obesity and hormone therapy in older women. A secondary objective is to develop more accurate indicators of obesity in postmenopausal women. For this project, I will be using data from nearly 30,000 postmenopausal women who participated in the Women's Health Initiative clinical trial. Women were randomly assigned to receive either hormone therapy or placebo pill. I will use advanced statistical methods to examine whether hormone therapy and obesity interact to increase the risk of heart disease in postmenopausal women. I will also make use of innovative technology for measuring obesity from dual energy x-ray absorptiometry scans and compare these results to standard tools for measuring body weight. The results of this research have great public health significance. Understanding how obesity and hormone therapy affect the risk of heart disease will help inform treatment guidelines and enable scientists to develop intervention programs specifically targeting postmenopausal women. These results will contribute to our understanding of healthy aging in postmenopausal women and be used to develop strategies to improve women's health outcomes.